Accurate recording keeping of medical records by medical “providers” (hospitals, physicians, clinics, labs, HMO's, PPO's, etc.), is a requirement of both federal and state laws in the U.S., and is considered a “standard of care” in the medical industry. Such medical records would be of significant benefit to treating patients in the event of a medical emergency or other medical scenario, with rapid, timely and secure access to said records. Providers must maintain records for a given number of years on a patient even after the patient has ceased using the services of the provider. Therefore, providers have a very large burden of maintaining accurate records, which include but are not limited to hand written physician charts, drug prescriptions, x-rays, CAT scans, lab tests, blood and urine tests, eye glass prescriptions, etc. As one could imagine a hospital which handles patients with serious conditions would have a tremendous amount of records on hand in paper and x-ray film format which would have to be maintained for some years. Due to the variable and unpredictable nature of medical emergencies Hospital Emergency rooms have particularly poor access to patient medical records in a medical emergency, whether the person was a prior patient or not. Most patients who are treated in an ER have never been a patient in the hospital before and therefore no medical records are available and there is no central system for ER staff to access and reference any patient records, whether they are former patients or not. Therefore, approximately 95% of the 110 million ER visits in the U.S. are performed with no access to prior patient medical records, clinical tests and history. This lack of ER access to patient medical records, during emergency medical treatment is a source of large amounts of medical errors, including errors due to Adverse Drug Interactions, misdiagnosis, and mistreatment based on a poor knowledge of a patient's medical history, pre-existing conditions, implants, allergies and medication allergies. It is one of the intents of this invention to provide a system for condensed patient medical data, which is organized into digital pages, which can be rapidly accessed via the Internet or other electronic means to provide medical benefit at point of care in a medical emergency or other medical scenario. Generalists as well as specialists such and cardiologist, Neurologists, dermatologists, etc., are also under the same laws to keep and maintain medical records for some reasonable period of time on each and every patient. Therefore, within the last several years many large hospitals and clinics have begun to use custom software packages for directly inputting patient charts into computer format to eliminate paper records. Other facilities have also chosen to put many medical records on microfilm or microfiche which is a more convenient and less bulky method of preserving paper medical records by photographing and reducing the documents onto film. Coupled with this record keeping burden are state and federal laws which restrict the amount a provider can charge for copies of medical records which are given at the request of patients. In most instances the charge for such copies of records in approximately $0.40-$0.60 per page. Therefore, it is not hard to imagine that this record keeping burden is a very large administrative cost for a large provider and one which actually drains revenues from a provider, as opposed to creating revenues for a provider. In contrast to the medical providers are the patients (consumers) who are entitled by law to have access to their medical records within a reasonable time period upon written request to the provider. As one could imagine the average individual and family has to order to try and maintain an individual set of medical records above and beyond what a provider keeps. This would entail the individual and family keeping track of drug prescriptions, eye glass prescriptions, x-rays, dental records, yearly physical examinations, etc., for an entire family. This would be a cumbersome and large set of records assuming the average citizen took the time to compile such records at all (most do not bother). As more and more individuals and families travel both domestically and internationally on vacations, for business and for re-locations and second homes, having rapid access to medical records is all the more important in the event of medical emergency. If one was in a foreign country and had a medical emergency and did not have access to medical records this could either result in many unnecessary and expensive additional medical tests being performed for a new physician to access the individuals condition, and also could result in either the wrong treatment or substandard treat, which could result in adverse medical complications and/or death in the most extreme cases.
One of the intents of the invention disclosed herein is to create a low cost, stream lined system which specifically meets the needs of the medical industry as well as the general public as the medical consumer to make the digitization, computer storage, retrieval, management, and electronic mailing of medical records efficient and low cost so as to fit into the present managed care environment in the U.S., and in particular to address the lack of access of medical records and data during treatment in the emergency room, trauma center or other acute care centers by allowing ER personnel to rapidly and confidentially access patient data stored and organized in easy to read digital pages. The invention disclosed herein would also have benefits on a global scale for aiding in the transfer of medical records and data intra-country and intra-continent, particularly in the case of patient who travel and experience a medical emergency or medical condition. The invention consists of a novel means of optically scanning ORIGINAL medical records into digitized binary format (original is emphasized because it is critical to the integrity of this system to have original patient medical charts and records which have a physicians original signature for authenticity), with unique software organizing the digitized medical records into a condensed digital page format and to prioritize the data by clinical utility and pre-existing condition severity order so as to prioritize and lessen the need for duplicate tests, and with assigning a unique alpha numerical identifier to each patient and individual's medical records (separate from Social Security # and Birth date), with unique software positively identify the validity of “electronic signatures” of physicians and providers, through a stored electronic signature library, which are using computer software packages to generate medical charts and records, a means of rapid access and retrieval of medical records via the Internet, website and other means, and the ability to electronically mail large amounts of medical records simultaneously to multiple individuals at multiple locations who require their medical records either for routine reasons or in the event of a medical emergency. This art includes another means of linking patients to their medical records via a PIN, or unique patient identifier which would be carried or worn on the body on a piece of jewelry or other appropriate means. In the event of a medical emergency, particularly if the user was unconscious, authorized medical personnel could access the patient's records via the said central website, Internet, voice system or telephone exchange using their unique identifier on the jewelry and other appropriate security measures.
There has been a great deal of prior art in the general area of medical records and using computers to organize and lessen clerical burdens. Many of the prior art patents focused mainly on ways to create software to do away with the traditional physician medical charts and to computerized medical charts whereby medical data would be inputted directly into a computer. One such patent is Doue U.S. Pat. No. 5,361,202 which teaches a computer system for managing the length of stay in a hospital of many patients simultaneously. The invention disclosed herein does not overlap or compete with the art that Doue teaches and the only thing they have in common is a computer system and medical data. The same holds true for Whalen U.S. Pat. No. 5,327,341 in which Whalen teaches a computer system and software for organizing patient charts. The main focus of Whalen is the format of the software which teaches the organization of computer medical charts with discrete fields and sections which aid in organizing the medical data. Whalen also claims the use of computer generated narrative reports which would be part of the physicians charts. Again, the inventions disclosed herein do not overlap or compete with the Whalen patent and the only thing the inventions have in common is a computer and medical data. In Lavin U.S. Pat. No. 5,772,585 a computer system is described again to facilitate and organize a physicians office which includes software for scheduling appointments, entering patient medical chart data onto a computerized chart, using a common graphic interface and creating data tables for the information. In Silvio U.S. Pat. No. 5,659,741 a computer system is taught to input large amounts of medical information onto computerized medical charts, transferring the data onto Hand Carried Storage devices, and for computerized searching of the files for character strings to compile health statistics and data. In Perry U.S. Pat. No. 5,241,466 a computer system is taught for storing living will documents presumably so they can be retrieved in the event of a person's death. Neither Lavin, Silvio or Perry teach the art and system disclosed herein in this invention and this invention does not over lap or compete in any way with the inventions taught of Lavin, Silvio or Perry. None of the above patents or other prior art patents teach the art herein for organizing digital, condensed medical data, in order of priority based on clinical utility and pre-existing condition severity, and providing rapid access to said records and data via Internet, wesbite, voice, or other electronic means in a medical emergency at a remote location anywhere in the world. Therefore, this invention is unique and novel and different from all prior art described.